A stable-isotope stratigraphy was established for planktonic and benthic foraminifers from upper Miocene-lower Pliocene pelagic sediments from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. A correlation of stable-isotope and biostratigraphic data with magnetostratigraphic age revealed the following: (1) the late Miocene carbon-isotope shift in the South Atlantic bottom waters was minute compared with the shift reported for other deep-sea locations (Haq et al., 1980), (2) a significant cooling or continental ice-volume increase occurred between 5.7 and 5.2 Ma, and (3) a period of warming or ice-volume decrease followed, with the rate of warming increasing beginning at 4.5 Ma and reaching a climax at 4.3 Ma. The timing of these paleoceanographic events is correlated with the onset and termination of the Messinian salinity crisis in the Mediterranean Sea.
Supplement to: McKenzie, Judith A; Weissert, Helmut J; Poore, Richard Z; Wright, Ramil; Percival, Stephen F Jr; Oberhänsli, Hedi; Casey, Martin (1984): Paleoceanographic implications of stable-isotope data from upper Miocene–lower Pliocene sediments from the Southeast Atlantic (Deep Sea Drilling Project Site 519). In: Hsü, KJ; LaBrecque, JL; et al. (eds.), Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project (U.S. Govt. Printing Office), 73, 717-724